Anyone who knows one, who is related to one, who works with one, or who is one knows this intuitively. They often are the silent glue that binds our communities. They often serve long after their service, lead after they've led, give after they gave.

They also are often forgotten.

There are 24 million veterans in America. They live among us, everywhere, and they share a profound bond only they fully understand.

Today we present to you stories of veterans from throughout the Southland whom we had the privilege of meeting at local VA health care centers.

Theirs are stories we believe need to be told.

And remembered. — Michael A. Anastasi, executive editor

World War II veterans share their stories

Emil Wroblicky

Age: 88

Residence: Pacific Palisades

Branch: Marine Corps

Conflict: World War II

Emil Wroblicky was an 18-year-old high school senior when the military drafted him, just more than a year after the attack on Pearl Harbor. He and a few friends chose to join the U.S. Marine Corps.

"We were young and we wanted to see a little excitement," Wroblicky said with a chuckle.

"And we got more excitement than we bargained for."

While making their way across the Pacific to Japan, Wroblicky's unit saw combat in Roi-Namur and Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands, where thousands were killed.

"We had Japanese Zero planes shooting at us," he said. "I could see the bullets going over my head as I hit the ground by the rice paddies."

At the Caroline Islands, Wroblicky witnessed kamikazes - Japanese pilots on suicide missions to crash planes into American warships. He was in Okinawa when the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

For Wroblicky, one of his worst memories of the war is looking at the graves of his fellow Devil Dogs.

"We couldn't take them with us," he said. "We had to bury them right there."

"There must have been 400 or 500 crosses for the buried Marines. You just hate to see friends never get to go home."